American Iron Magazine – August 2019

14 / American Iron / Issue #379 AIMag.com

SHIFTING GEARS

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...the battle lines between traditional print

and questionable online sources are drawn

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and supporting our magazine.

We appreciate you, and work

hard to publish what you want

and deserve. The heck with the self-

serving “Prophets of the Internet”

who call for the death of print! Most

of our readers (the great majority

believe in print) know better and

would disagree. In the world of fake

news and deliberate click bait, the

battle lines between traditional print

and questionable online sources are

drawn. Both print and online have

value but not always at the exclusion

of the other. But I am a print guy.

Some magazines could not meet

today’s challenges. But I can assure

you that print is not dead. Want

proof? It’s in your hands right now.

Yes, a lot of print magazines we once

enjoyed are gone, but others are

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of magazine Darwinism — with the

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the better managed ones have

a solid future. The ones that

offer the quality and consis-

tency our readers and adver-

tisers want will be around for

a long time.

It’s all about the Ben-

jamins. The magazine

industry, like many

others, is caught

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downdraft. Ours

is created by de-

clining audience

and advertising

income. If not

properly man-

aged, it eventu-

ally can lead to a

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in editorial content

quality. Granted, as

a magazine’s revenues

decline so do its editorial budgets and

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some publishers (print and online) this

leads to the false economy of pass-

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cycles. But not here!

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es than incomes has to make tough

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leads to ever greater cuts in editorial

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vicious circle.

Want to help break that circle?

Support those who support you. In

our case I am asking you to subscribe

to American Iron Magazine, and to get

your riding buddies to do the same.

Put your money where your passion

is! We publish 13 issues a year, and

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com today.

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or Twitter account can spout off

as an insta-expert on any given

topic at any given time regard-

less of the facts. Some people are

okay with info from free on-line

“citizen journalists” to keep up

with the Kardashians. I

know there are a lot

of people, like you

and me, who are

willing to pay a

little to sup-

port profes-

sional and

accurate

reporting in

a magazine.

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your friends

among us?

Today, many

long-term advertis-

ers are unsure of where

and how to spend their advertising

and marketing dollars. The digital

marketing salespeople tell them they

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the same online experts behind issues

like faked paid views and click farms

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understand how an ad buyer can be

confused on where to pitch his ads.

So, please let our advertisers know

when you support them and read our

magazine.

We have been absorbing our in-

creasing costs, from paper and ink to

distribution fees into stores. Our read-

ers expect and deserve the best pos-

sible product, so, rather than cut size

or quality, we are reluctantly increas-

ing the cover price $1 per issue with

the next issue. We are holding the

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(13 issues of American Iron Magazine,

plus an issue of American Iron Salute,

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the next issue) or subscribe for a little

over two dollars each and be entered

to win a new Indian Scout motor-

cycle. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I strongly recommend subscribing (or

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Ride safe, ride smart, have fun.

Buzz Kanter

Publisher/Editor in Chief

Buzz Kanter

@ Buzz Kanter